Troops feel sense of history on final tour

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Mourners pay their repects after the repatriations of Capt Thomas Clarke, Warrant Officer Spencer Faulkner and Cpl James Walters all from the Army Air Corps; and RAF Intelligence Officer Flt Lt Rakesh Chauhan and L/Cpl Oliver ThomasEPA

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A Royal Air Force aircraft carrying the bodies of the five British servicemen were killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, arrives at RAF Brize NortonGetty Images

The final brigade of troops preparing to deploy to Afghanistan will fly to Helmand over the next month in a handover that will see the number of British forces at Camp Bastion shrink from about 5,000 to between 2,000 and 3,000 — massively down from their peak of 9,500.

Nerves, excitement and a sense of history were the overriding emotions yesterday as the last soldiers readied themselves for what Mark Francois, the armed forces minister, said was “perhaps the ultimate march-out.”

No one wanted to dwell on the possibility of becoming the last to die in a 13-year conflict that has

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The bodies of five military personnel who were killed when their helicopter crashed in Kandahar last month have been returned to Britain.
The coffins of Captain Thomas Clarke, Warrant Officer Spencer Faulkner and Corporal James Walters, of the Army Air Corps; Flight Lieutenant Rakesh Chauhan, of the Royal Air Force; and Lance Corporal Oliver Thomas of the Intelligence Corps, were flown into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
Friends, relatives and well-wishers gathered in the village of Carterton to pay their respects, and the hearses paused to allow people to place flowers on the roofs.